Bourjois 8 in 1 BB Bronzing Cream

 

I'm not really one for bronzing products, Nars Laguna is about as far as it goes to adding a little warmth to my face and even then I do so sparingly. The word 'bronze' alone is enough to give me a physical shudder and have me grimacing over images of orange umpa-lumpas. Needless to say I generally keep my distance from anything that has that word in the description. However with it now being June I can't deny that I don't crave a slightly more sun-kissed look but given that this is England I won't hold my breath. So when watching a video by Vivianna Does Makeup I was intrigued  by the sound of this product from Bourjois that received a mention.

 

 I did a further bit of research, read through review after review and even though the overall consensus of this product from reviews would be don't buy it, I went ahead and got it anyway. I'm not crazy though, as I think that a lot of people reviewing it were not necessarily using it in the most effective way, as I will explain below.

 

So first things first this only comes in one shade, meaning that its a universal product. Now I  wouldn't normally ever reach for a bottle this dark and I'm not going to lie it does also come out the pump looking rather daunting too (see following image). Even at my most tanned I doubt that this would ever be a match for my natural skintone, as you can see it is very dark and dare I say it orange looking.

 The key trick that I picked up from watching that video was to use this in addition to your normal foundation, sort of like a tint or built in bronzer. Given that my current everyday foundation was the one I purchased back in the winter from Rimmel, it is a very light shade which is beginning to notice with my slightly more freckled complexion. I was just going to buy the next shade up until I discovered this bronzing cream from Borjois and decided to give it a go. For comparisons sake I have included some swatches below.

Swatches taken in natural daylight.

 At the top is my original everyday foundation gently blended in, which as you can see is on the verge of being too light for my skin tone. Then we have the Borjois BB Cream blended in which is still obviously far too dark. However when taking my Rimmel foundation and a rather small amount of the Borjois BB cream together and blending it you can see that it makes a noticable difference and creates a shade that is actually wearable. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked the effect of these two products together.

The Borjois BB cream really does enhance the colour of my otherwise pale Rimmel foundation and creates a lovely healthy glow when blended out evenly across my face. It is quite surprising how natural the two combined appear given how dark and scary the BB cream looks alone. I feel like it makes my foundation more radiant while still managing to keep it from being too 'bronze'. I'm definitely glad that I gave this a try and would recommend this to those in the same situation as me where me your foundation is maybe getting a bit pale and you want to achieve a more sunkissed face without over doing things. One for your makeup bag this summer I think!

What bronzing products do you use on your face? 

Monthly Favourites | March 2014

Hello I hope that you're all doing well. It's already time for another favourites post. Before I begin rambling on about all the products I just wanted to remind any of you that didn't catch my last post that I'm actually away on a course training for the next fortnight. Therefore my blogging schedule will be reduced to once maybe twice a week just while I'm away. I have a few posts set to publish and then all shall resume to normal, I also plan on doing a little update once I return too. Now onto those favourites!

Benefit The Porefessional.
The first product I want to talk about as one of my March favourites is The Porefessional primer from Benefit. Now I have actually owned this for a good few months but I have only really noticed the huge difference it makes in the last few weeks. I was on the fence about this for a little while (looking back I don't think I was applying enough product) it got to the point that it this ended up at the back of my Muji drawer and forgotten about. However now its spring and those highlighters, shimmery blushes and so on are in full swing I noticed that my pores were emphasised much more when my skin underneath wasn't primed.  I dug out the Porefessional from its neglected hiding place, and let me just say it definitely wont be hibernating again any time soon! This translucent balm smooths my skin so nicely and does fill in pores pretty well therefore creating the ideal base for my makeup. I've read that you only need to use a small amount but I found far better results when I wasn't quite so stingey.

Urban Decay Naked Basic Palette.
My eyeshadow choices for the month couldn't be any different to each other. Enter Naked Basics from Urban Decay - if you caught my recent Spring beauty haul you may have noticed that this palette made its way into my life and I'm so glad that it did. I have been absolutely loving some of these matte eyeshadows  to create really neutral yet very pretty eye looks especially when Venus, on the far left is used on the inner corner. I think that the reason that I've been particularly enjoying this palette is because I've mostly been saving the shimmer for elsewhere on my face and the eye looks that this palette allow for can tone things back down and still keep things remaining very natural looking.

MAC All That Glitters Eyeshadow.
However for days that I was craving a pop of colour to my eyes I opted for what is probably one of, if not my favourite eyeshadow from Mac (it was also the first one I got too.) All That Glitters has been perfect in March for a hit of peachy shimmer on my eyes on the days that I didn't fancy those matte shades from UD. I just love this eyeshadow for so many reasons but ultimately it allows me to be very lazy, I literally spray my eyeshadow brush with some makeup setting spray as discussed in this post, sweep it in the pan and the colour transfers beautifully straight onto the eyelid and I can just leave it at that.

Real Techniques Powder Brush.
This powder brush has made such a difference to my makeup routine every morning, it is super soft and the size enables you to quickly distribute powder across your face effortlessly. I've been using
this with my bareMinerals touch up veil to set any makeup and also with my bronzer, which really quickly adds colour and life back to your face which I find so effective. I didn't really think that this was a brush that I needed, but it was only the 3 for 2 in Boots that prompted me to get it and turns out that this is oh so practical and as most RT are, its multipurpose which is another bonus.

Real Tecnhiques Retractable Lipstick Brush.
Possibly the cutest brush that you could own and a mircale worker when applying high maitenence lipsticks, or for quick touch ups throughout the day. I've already written a full review on this brush here.

MAC MSF Stereo Rose.
Stereo Rose from Mac has been my baby this month - seriously I can't sing its praises enough. Actually I think that an honourable mention goes out to all the pieces I picked up from Mac's Fantasy Of Flowers collection this month, as not one piece has left me disappointed - you can see exactly what I picked up in this post. But in particular I have loved Stereo Rose a lot in March, it gives my skin the prettiest, warm peachy glow that just seems to catch the light revealling a truly radiant finish to the face. I actually find that this lasts a good while on the skin too which is always a bonus, I'm so glad that I managed to get my hands on this limited edition skin finish.

Bourjois 123 Perfect CC Cream.
This CC cream from Bourjois has been everywhere on the bloggersphere in the last few weeks and I just had to see what all the fuss was about. The first few times I wore this I couldn't really get the hype which is understandable given that I've never owned any type of BB/CC cream before. However on the third or so attempt at applying this I must have got used to it a bit more and I finally learnt to love it. This gave me a medium coverage and the cream itself felt more like a liquid than what you would call a cream but otherwise it made the colouration in my skin even, and was extremely comfortable to wear.



MAC Costa Chic.
Costa Chic has been my most grabbed lipstick in March and boy was I happy to see this make an appearance in my life. I purchased this back in the autumn because I just couldn't resist its beauty, however it didn't really get much use as this just isn't the lipstick for those later months of the year. Costa Chic is the most beautiful hybrid of coral and peach with just a touch of golden shimmer due to the frost finish. This lipstick brightens up your entire face, and is just one of those that makes you feel good when you wear it. I would say that this is a great option if you're not brave enough to go for a full on orange, this is not exactly a statement lipstick yet it is still very beautiful.

What did you love in March?